In the 17th century, Drancy was divided into two distinct villages: Drancy le Grand and le Petit Drancy. The village is built on the old location of the hamlet of Groslay which was surrounded by the forest of Bondy — hence the name of rue des Bois de Groslay.

The end of nineteenth century was marked by the industrialisation and by the development of rail transports. During the Franco-Prussian war, Le Bourget was the site of an important battle and the castle of Ladoucette in Drancy was destroyed.

¹This group is made up largely of former French settlers, such as pieds-noirs in Northwest Africa, followed by former colonial citizens who had French citizenship at birth (such as was often the case for the native elite in French colonies), and to a lesser extent foreign-born children of French expatriates. Note that a foreign country is understood as a country not part of France in 1999, so a person born for example in 1950 in Algeria, when Algeria was an integral part of France, is nonetheless listed as a person born in a foreign country in French statistics.
²An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth. Note that an immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants.

Drancy's buildings are too diverse to be characterised by any particular architectural style. We can see traditional houses from different periods. Some of them with a style Art Nouveau are typical of the 19th and 20th centuries. We can see housing estates and a garden city. Most recently, full of small buildings were built.

The parc de Ladoucette[3] is the only park of Drancy. It contains a pond, a small educational farm and the castle of Ladoucette. The castle was built in 1533 by Pierre Séguier. In the 19th century, the castle was the property of the senator Charles-Loetitia de Ladoucette, in 1874 his wife, la baronne de Ladoucette dies and her body was placed in the Mausoleum de la baronne de Ladoucette, today she is buling in the parisian cimetery.